Blog relating to the American Presidency, specific American Presidents, and First Ladies. Posts by online college instructor Jennie Weber with additional posts by site founder Dr. Michael Lorenzen and Elementaryhistoryteacher.

Monday, February 27, 2006

The Real Legacy of Ronald Reagan

The Real Legacy of Ronald Reagan. Essay asserting Reagan did not serve the interests of the majority of the people, and in fact impacted the country and the world in some very negative and even devastating ways.

I have not posted any articles negative on recent Presidents lately. I do not really want this blog to be political. I am more interested in history instead. However, I thought this anti-Reagan rant was interesting in how one-sided it presents facts. Every possible negative version of an event has been included while ignoring any more favorable interpretation.

It also just seems to get some stuff wrong. For example, here is comment on Reagan's handling of the Air Traffic Controllers Strike:

But one of the worst thing she did was wage war on the labor force, and particularly on labor unions. This began when Reagan fired and replaced 13,000 air traffic controllers in 1981 after they staged a work stoppage to bring attention to their plight. He abused his power to break their union.

Well, as the air traffic controllers were federal employees, they broke the law by going on strike in the first place. And in the process, they endangered the lives of everyone who used a plane to travel. Reagan really had no choice but to stop the strike. That hardly is an abuse of presidential power.

Another interesting (but flawed) claim:

Another myth is that Reagan won the Cold War. Reaganites erroneously claim that Reagan's Star Wars Initiative, his tough rhetoric in his (Soviet) "Evil Empire" speech, and his costly defense buildup in particular were all part of a successful strategy to defeat communism and win the Cold War. Not true.

Maybe Reagan did not win the Cold War alone, but it is very hard to deny that he had a role in the fall of the Soviet Union. Even if you want to deny this, the evidence cited by the author is not significant enough to draw this conclusion which is at odds with most historians.

Anyway, this essay is part of a bigger site called "Real Prophecy Revealed." If that sounds good to you, check out the whole site. Maybe the rest of the content is more balanced and less politically skewed.

2 comments:

Gotta say that the more I looked around that site the more I became convinced that guy is nuts. The article on Reagan is probably one of the saner pieces of work. While Reagan certainly wasn't perfect, I don't think he was as terrible as the article would make you think.